


The Broken Window

by Joyous32



Series: Simple Facts [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Blood, Established Relationship, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Overcoming Trauma, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-10-29 17:31:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20800277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joyous32/pseuds/Joyous32
Summary: That time when Andrew tries to sleep through his demons, and it doesn't go well for the bedroom window.





	The Broken Window

When Neil entered the room that night, Andrew’s eyes flickered to his. Neil stopped, and Andrew raised an eyebrow. There was nothing obviously different tonight. Andrew was first to bed—nothing new. He was still up, however, and on his phone—still nothing new.

But the tension in his shoulders didn’t sit right in Neil’s mind. Why had Andrew placed himself so directly in the middle of their bed? Why were his eyes following Neil around the room as Neil stumbled in the dark?

Andrew scooted over on the bed as Neil approached. Once Neil sat down, Andrew scooted even farther away. “Dude.” Neil held his hands up in confusion, but also in offering.

_What do you want me to do? _

Andrew snorted. “What are you, a frat boy?” He turned his attention back to his phone. Or—as far as anyone else would have noticed, he did. Neil could sense that Andrew’s thoughts were a million miles away from Nicky’s Instagram post about how much he loved Erik. Neil ignored this and hugged his side of the bed as he lay down. Normally, he’d go in for a kiss goodnight, but tonight he didn’t feel he had that right.

“You okay?” Neil asked.

“’M fine,” Andrew grunted without looking away from his phone. “You?”

“’M good.”

For another hour, the light from Andrew’s phone blared against his face. His eyelids didn’t droop. _If I sleep, he will sleep._ Neil reminded himself. Andrew liked being the last alert. Neil didn’t allow himself think anything more on the subject.

Neil woke to the sensation of falling. He was on the floor. A crash sounded overhead, and Neil’s heart was loud in his ears. It was too dark.

_Too dark_.

The lights blared on, and Neil struggled to stand as his eyes adjusted. He felt an ache in his side from where he had fallen onto the floor. “Andrew?” Neil called, knowing it had to be him.

Neil gazed around the room to see the window broken from the inside. He grabbed a racquet and darted down the hall. As he passed the bathroom, he saw Andrew standing at the sink, washing his hands. Andrew’s eyes blinked up the second Neil came into view, but then back down to the task at hand.

He couldn’t stay focused, though. His eyes kept flashing to Neil’s face, to the racquet, to the door. “Calm down, junkie. There’s nobody for you to kill,” Andrew voiced. The sink was stained red with blood, and Neil made the connection.

“You punched the window,” Neil commented, but Andrew didn’t dignify that with a response. “Was there…something in the window?” Neil suggested, and saw Andrew’s nose twitch.

“Have you checked the rest of the house for your intruder?” Neil knew instinctively that Andrew’s reply was simply a retort to his own comment, but he couldn’t help his heart suddenly racing.

“Do I need to?” Neil questioned. His sight blurred with adrenaline as Andrew sighed.

“For your own sake,” Andrew grumbled beneath his breath.

“What?”

“No,” Andrew answered, still scrubbing at his hand.

“You’re going to bleed yourself dry.” Neil reached forward to help, but Andrew jerked back so fast that pink water flew. “Woah.” Neil held his hands up in surrender, backing out of the bathroom once more. Neil cursed himself inwardly. _How had he forgotten such a simple fact regarding Andrew? _

Andrew practically snarled as he moved away from the sink and grabbed a towel.

“Do you want—”

“_No_.”

“—me to go?” Neil finished, and there was a long silence as Andrew watched blood ooze up from his bruising hand. “Yes or no?”

Neil heard Andrew’s breath catch. Or maybe it was the first breath Andrew had taken all night. “Yes,” Andrew whispered, and Neil gave him a nod. He didn’t let a single emotion pass his face, which Andrew seemed grateful for.

“Tweezers and rubbing alcohol get the glass out of your hand,” Neil offered in farewell. “Bandages in the cabinet.” Andrew knew this. Neil knew he knew. He couldn’t help but remind him though.

Neil continued his way down the hall, racquet swinging by his side. Despite his understanding of the situation, he checked each room. He unlocked the front door to peer into the night. It had to be close to one in the morning on this suburban street—not a soul in sight. He locked the door once more. 

Then he headed back to the bedroom to check the damage to the window. He swept up the glass shards, and then hung a thick blanket in front of the window to stop the draft that cooled the room.

As Neil turned to throw away the glass shards, he found Andrew standing in the doorway. His hand was wrapped well due to Andrew’s own experience with injuries. Andrew strode forward and held his hand out in between them, an aborted reach for Neil's chin. Andrew's injured hand hung close behind as if to protect or ward away.

Neil didn’t speak but could practically hear both of their hearts beating. Andrew’s uninjured hand landed on Neil’s chest, but Neil continued to wait. His eyebrows furrowed as he watched Andrew frown.

Andrew took another step forward so that they were almost chest to chest. He cradled Neil’s jaw with his injured hand and leaned in, only an inch away from Neil’s mouth. Normally, Neil would feel Andrew’s breath against his mouth, but now, he felt nothing. He stepped back and Andrew’s breath finally came in a silent gasp.

“Don’t.” Neil gently removed Andrew’s hand from his jaw. “Don’t use me as a weapon against you. You’ll just learn to hate me.”

“I already hate you.” Andrew didn’t sound as if anything abnormal had occurred in the last ten minutes. Just another night—for some reason way too early to rise and way too late to be up on a weekday.

“What are we at again?” Neil allowed the change in mood for a moment longer. They needed some semblance of normalcy.

“A thousand,” Andrew scoffed, stepping over to the doorway.

“Bit of a jump.” Andrew peered down the hall as Neil stood beside the bed. Neil caught himself and moved away from it.

“You just right now added four hundred points,” Andrew explained.

“Sometimes, yes or no doesn’t cover it all,” Neil suggested, and Andrew’s eyes gazed to his, but then back down the hall. Every part of Neil screamed to go confront whatever Andrew was staring at. There wasn’t anything in the house, they both knew. There were no dangers beyond the ones in their own heads.

“We can’t always know to check…” Neil felt his own breath quicken as he forced himself to focus on the matter at hand. “Or—we can check with each other ‘til we’re blue in the face. We’ll still miss something. Sometimes, you have to tell me what else is going on.”

“_I don’t know_,” Andrew snapped harshly as if he’d been having this same conversation with himself over and over again. He didn’t always say much, but when he spoke, the words had meaning—sometimes meaning beyond what was presently obvious.

“That’s okay,” Neil offered. “Sometimes I don’t know that I’m taking when I am.” He had taken his side of the bed when Andrew had been in the middle of it. Andrew had tolerated it. He had fallen asleep in that bed, and Andrew had let him.

Andrew stalked forward once more and didn’t let Neil pull away as he wrapped his fingers around Neil’s jaw. He surveyed Neil’s eyes, looking for something. Neil didn’t know what else to offer him.

“It’s okay if the answer is no.”

“I know.”

“If it is, we don’t have to talk about it.”

“I know.”

“Immediately, I mean—”

“I know, Neil.” There was another long pause as tension seeped from their shoulders. Neil could feel the wear of the night setting in once more.

“Yes or no?” Neil leaned in a bit, but Andrew released his hold on Neil’s chin like it was burning.

“No,” Andrew answered before Neil had even finished the question.

“Okay.” Neil’s voice cracked once more as Andrew took a step back and scratched at his head.

“I’m sleeping in the guestroom tonight,” Andrew decided, leaving the room before the statement was even finished.

That was okay, too. Neil knew the comforts of a presence beside him in sleep, so he could imagine the equal horrors of it. Andrew wasn’t angry. Except maybe at himself. Neither was Neil. Right now, they were both tired, and they knew they’d talk it over when the sun rose and the shadows faded.

**Author's Note:**

> This probably wasn’t what you guys had in mind when you said to continue “Statues Don’t Need Help”. 😂 I’m working on a scene with Bee, I promise.


End file.
